Please don't do specilization quests again. It's annoying

Yes, that was interesting to notice.
Fenris was the first in my PT to notice that: three Hawke - warrior specs are included
- Spirit Pulse (FF though as the Templar has) + magic resist
- Reaver as has more speed after enemy dies
- Bers as has more STA regen after killing an enemy

Anders is A Spirit Healer and A Blood mage.
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What I find indeed unique among companions specs is Merrill. She is a Blood Mage, though a Dalish Blood mage which works differently. Setting up tactics for her to make everything work is a bit tricky. But after that she is a real beast.



Those are good explanations. Too bad they remain "clues" and just given to us.

That is a great idea.

I liked how in the Might and Magic games you basically had the same thing, as promotion quests. Like a Knight would become a Cavalier, a Paladin would become a Crusader etc. And then, you'd get a second promotion quest.
They were fun quests.

Surely that does make it more realistic. I mean Wynne would never willingly learn blood magic and Morrigan might have been warned off it by Flemeth, so it makes sense that you have to learn it for yourself from a demon. Then by DAA you are experienced enough that perhaps you can just work it out from a book. As for having to be a mage, why would a demon want to do a deal with a non-mage? What use would you have for it? I've already explained why neither of the mages in your party would voluntarily turn to blood magic but might if the idea was sold to them by a fellow mage who was capable of teaching them.

Well they could have had you find a tome whilst you were snooping around in the Circle Tower. You find a codex in Irving's Room saying that he removed the books on blood magic from the library to there, so they could have let one of them actually be the instruction manual on blood magic. That would have effectively weaved it into the plot. Then if you had no use for it, you could have sold it on but you would have had the option to open up the blood mage specialism without being a mage, through the simple expedient of giving it to the relevant companion.

I still prefer the way it was done in DAO to DAI.

In general, I like the idea of doing a quest to obtain a specialization.

I think some of the main quests in Origins had the right *starting* idea, when you unlocked Specializations in choices you already had. For example, you got Champion by rallying the defense of Redcliffe, Blood Mage from Connor's Desire Demon, and Reaver by besting a gauntlet of foes and drinking dragon blood.

In retrospect, I think it would have made more sense if we unlocked Templar from Gregoir, since "The Broken Circle" involved saving and/or killing mages. Or if Master Ignacio gave us tips on being better Assassins. Hell, even though the Wood Elf Ranger is a tired cliche, I think it would'be been better to learn Ranger from the Dalish or Werewolves, rather than just a book.

I liked DA2's basic idea: Giving your companions a unique spin on things made them more individual. But I want a minor quest. Not a fetch quest. A small dungeon to plunder.

Some dudes arrived, offering career opportunities. There was little info given. I remember having to reload when my pick is not what I wanted. I usually dont bother, but that is too big an impact to leave up to chance.

Given the specialisations are in many cases character defining (especially ones like AW/KE, Reaver, or Blood Mage), I think we should pick them in character creation (or at the lastest at like lvl 3), with companions having their own unique/mixed ones, and then have it be a point of reactivity in the main story. I always use mods in DAI, or console commands in DA2 and DAO to add specialisations early because it just makes sense to me that you would've started on the path, instead of just randomly picking it up and becoming proficient in them in the middle of everything else. 

You could then have you could then have specialisation quests that are specifically tied to what the specialisation is good at, and maybe unlocking some special skill within the tree (maybe specialisation within specialisation?), and furthering the connection between it and the character you're playing. It should also probably be tied to the main story somehow.

Maybe Arcane Warrior goes searching for some ancient elven blade said to bind to the user, allowing them to better blend their martial and magical arts, and in the process meets spirits who put them through a trial that tests their martial and arcane prowess to make sure they are worthy. And maybe they get a unique path through a quest because an elven keeper recognises the blade you're wielding. Or an Assassin takes on a contract to kill someone main story, and gets into some conflict with Crows or w/e.

Maybe if we wanted to keep the dual specialisation aspect of DAO/DA2, we could possibly have a quest later in the game, where we get stuck in the main plot and need to get more powerful for some reason, that would lead you to seek out lesser version of another specialisation, that would allow you to get a section of their powers, but only that since you've not been using them for long. Perhaps in the vein of Warden Blood powers in DAO, some of the powers could change based on your primary specialisation, like going from Necromancer to Blood Mage would allow you to cause explosion of blood from your raised minions, while Arcane Warrior would get access to blood enhanced melee attacks, and both would get access to using their health pool instead of mana. 

Oh, yeah, I just threw out first idea that came to my head for non-arcane warrior spec (I was mostly interested Arcane Warriors who have very specific lore ), if they were actually doing this, the quests shouldn't be specific to one organisation. I think ideally they should be related to where you're in the story, so maybe if we're thinking about assassin, maybe the quest could appear as an alternate solution to dealing with some enemy leader. Where normally they would appear leading an assault on you, you could nip it in the bud early by murdering them in their base. 

Should probably have a few resolutions too, like in my original example, you could just go and take it by force, which would have repercussions on whatever reactivity there is related to the blade you sought. The assassin could maybe 'persuade' (read: threaten) the enemy leader to instead join you, or sabotage the enemy. And the skill unlock I've mentioned in my previous post could be tied to this as well, there could be a passive stat boost that works with whatever decision you made, like maybe just killing will get you bonus damage from stealth/invisibility, while intimidating them into helping you would let first attack from stealth crowd control an enemy for a moment. Or alternatively, axe the idea of power reward completely, so you can deny the quest if the idea doesn't appeal to the character (and have the story react to that too).

I'm basically thinking mini-version of origins, just not at the beginning of the game.

Specifics of these ideas might not be great, but I do think, that with the right scenario and choices, it could be made where the risk of clashing with roleplay could be minimal. Never nonexistent though, as is always the case with video games. 

I didn't mind the quests, too much, in DAI. I think the idea of bringing in advisors/trainers was fine. However, maybe it would have been better if they were temporary companions for a training mission. We could try out the specialty and they could comment/advise/instruct.